Faith in the Face of Fear: Lessons from Paul's Journey
Pastor Josh Massaro leads a thought-provoking Bible study in this Sunday Evening Service at Middletown Baptist Church, focusing on Acts 17 and the early church's mission in Thessalonica. The main takeaway is the importance of preaching the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, which emphasizes both His suffering and resurrection. Pastor Josh highlights how the early Christians faced persecution and opposition but remained steadfast in their faith, demonstrating that the power of God can thrive even in challenging circumstances. He encourages listeners to engage with others by reasoning from Scripture, rather than relying on human wisdom. This sermon serves as a reminder that true transformation and growth in faith can occur, even in a brief time, as evidenced by the successful establishment of the Thessalonian church despite the initial challenges it faced.
Pastor Josh Massaro leads a dynamic study in this Sunday Evening Service, focusing on Acts 17 and the early church's mission in Thessalonica. As he recounts Paul's journey and the challenges faced during his brief stay in the city, he emphasizes the significance of preaching the Gospel amidst opposition and adversity. The episode captures the essence of Paul's approach to evangelism—reasoning from the Scriptures and engaging in dialogue with both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue. Pastor Josh highlights how Paul’s method of using Old Testament prophecies to explain the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus serves as a model for contemporary evangelism.
The discussion progresses to explore the contrasting reactions of different groups to the Gospel message. While many Greeks and women accepted Paul's teachings, the religious leaders responded with envy and hostility, leading to a riot that forced Paul and Silas to flee. Through this narrative, Pastor Josh draws parallels between the challenges of the early church and those faced by modern believers. He encourages the congregation to embrace humility and openness, qualities that foster receptiveness to the truth of Christ, and cautions against the pride that can hinder belief.
Pastor Josh concludes by affirming the enduring power of God’s word and the potential for authentic faith to flourish even in difficult circumstances. He reminds listeners that God’s faithfulness does not waver, and even a church planted in a hostile environment can thrive and share the Gospel effectively, as evidenced by the Thessalonian church's impact in the years that followed. This message of hope and encouragement resonates deeply, inspiring listeners to remain steadfast in their faith and witness.
Takeaways:
- Pastor Josh emphasizes the importance of reasoning from Scripture when sharing the Gospel.
- The church in Thessalonica was established rapidly, despite the short time Paul spent there.
- God often closes doors to guide us to the right opportunities for ministry.
- Paul's preaching style involved explaining the Scriptures to connect with his audience.
- Thessalonica's early church demonstrated that a small group can have a significant impact.
- Pride and jealousy can hinder spiritual growth and acceptance of the Gospel message.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:00 - Introduction to the Podcast
03:22 - Paul's Missionary Journey to Thessalonica
12:01 - The Distinction of Belief: Humility vs. Pride
28:33 - The Power of God in Weakness
36:37 - The Challenge of Authenticity
39:40 - The Importance of Sharing the Gospel
Pastor Josh
Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Pastor Josh
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
Pastor Josh
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
Pastor Josh
Now, come along.
Pastor Josh
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
Pastor Josh
All right, well, we're going to go ahead and start our Bible study here this evening.
Pastor Josh
Now, we were studying a book of the Bible before we got to the Christmas season.
Pastor Josh
And I know that we're a little light in numbers tonight, but does anyone remember what book we were studying?
Pastor Josh
We were 16 chapters in.
Pastor Josh
So if you don't remember, it's going to hurt my heart.
Pastor Josh
It's going to be us, ax.
Pastor Josh
All right.
Pastor Josh
I had some people that came through there.
Pastor Josh
I appreciate that.
Pastor Josh
Acts.
Pastor Josh
And we were actually using Acts Acts as an acronym for a phrase, and it was Authentic Church through Scripture.
Pastor Josh
Okay.
Pastor Josh
So hopefully some of this is ringing a bell for the regulars and for others.
Pastor Josh
We'll catch you up.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to give you a synopsis of 16 chapters of the book of Acts in three minutes.
Pastor Josh
Just kidding.
Pastor Josh
I can't do that.
Pastor Josh
But we're going to do.
Pastor Josh
What we're going to do tonight is I'll try to catch you up the best that I can with where we are, and then we're going to jump right into Acts 17.
Pastor Josh
So we've gone through 16 chapters in the Book of Acts.
Pastor Josh
Now, what we have learned so far is that the early church was commissioned or given a job to preach the gospel, right.
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And to spread.
Pastor Josh
And that spread came through them going out and telling people.
Pastor Josh
But actually, we saw that the spread of the Gospel actually came through persecution.
Pastor Josh
And as the persecution began to grow, so then the people began to spread.
Pastor Josh
And God allowed certain difficulties to happen to the church so that the gospel would be spread.
Pastor Josh
And we looked at a bunch of different things.
Pastor Josh
We looked at a fellow named Stephen, the some people call the first deacon.
Pastor Josh
He was martyred for his faith.
Pastor Josh
And actually there was a fella that was there as a witness and was holding the coats of the fellows that were stoning him.
Pastor Josh
And that was a guy named Saul.
Pastor Josh
Now, we've kind of tracked the life of Saul.
Pastor Josh
We looked at Saul's conversion, his transformation from being a persecutor of Christians to being a preacher to folks in Christianity and actually being the one persecuted.
Pastor Josh
And that's where we pick up.
Pastor Josh
But Paul is now on his second missionary journey.
Pastor Josh
We tracked his first Missionary journey.
Pastor Josh
He went all the way around into places like Asia and even moved his way into Europe and worked his way all the way back to Jerusalem and then moved his way back out.
Pastor Josh
And now he's on his second missionary journey and we're going to see here this evening he leaves a place, Philippi, which was a place that he saw the conversion of this fellow.
Pastor Josh
This was the jail keeper, the prison keeper, and his whole family was transformed.
Pastor Josh
In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we saw a lady named Lydia that was converted there in Philippi.
Pastor Josh
And really, if we remember, Philippi was a place that Paul wasn't even intending to go.
Pastor Josh
It was actually God had closed two doors to get him to go to Philippi.
Pastor Josh
And we learned that sometimes God closes doors.
Pastor Josh
He speaks just as loud by closed doors as he does open doors.
Pastor Josh
And sometimes God stops things in our life so that he brings us to a place where we need to go.
Pastor Josh
And whether Paul knew it or not, he needed to go to Philippi to see these individuals converted.
Pastor Josh
But now he leaves Philippi and we're going to see in Acts chapter 17, he goes to a place called Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
And we're going to look at his visit here to Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
It's a short visit.
Pastor Josh
It's a visit that sees some success but actually sees a lot of persecution in a short amount of time.
Pastor Josh
And they're basically chased out in three weeks.
Pastor Josh
And believe it or not though, within this three week period, a church is started.
Pastor Josh
And we see that there are actually two books of the Bible, first and Second Thessalonians that are written to the church that was started at this very moment here in Acts chapter 17.
Pastor Josh
So what's significant about Thessalonica?
Pastor Josh
Well, it's a prominent city in a place called Macedonia, modern day Greece.
Pastor Josh
If you go to the Footsteps of Paul tour in Greece, you will go to Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
And it due to its location, it's a seaport there on the Aegean Sea and it was a major place for Roman transit.
Pastor Josh
And Paul and Silas traveled to Thessalonica there to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to these people.
Pastor Josh
So this is a very well to do city.
Pastor Josh
It's a city that had a lot of religion, it's a city that had a lot of trade.
Pastor Josh
And so there's going to be an opportunity for Paul to preach the gospel here with Silas and the the group that is going.
Pastor Josh
So let's go ahead and look at Acts chapter 17.
Pastor Josh
You have somewhat of a context to what's happening here.
Pastor Josh
And then we're going to look at what happens as he preaches.
Pastor Josh
So it says here in verse one.
Pastor Josh
Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews.
Pastor Josh
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them.
Pastor Josh
And so Paul's first step was he would go and he would preach to the Jewish people in all of these cities, because all of these cities had Jews there living.
Pastor Josh
And they would then meet in the synagogue.
Pastor Josh
Now, what's significant about the synagogue, the synagogue was not just their church.
Pastor Josh
The synagogue was the meeting place.
Pastor Josh
The synagogue was the town hall.
Pastor Josh
They would all go to the synagogue to learn.
Pastor Josh
They would all go to the synagogue to share.
Pastor Josh
And so Paul thought that this was the best place to go to speak to individuals who already had an understanding of the Old Testament scriptures.
Pastor Josh
So what Paul would do is he would go to synagogues and he would reason with the people from the Old Testament, Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
So he would preach to them not religion, but a relationship with Jesus.
Pastor Josh
And so it says in verse two, as Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them and three Sabbath days.
Pastor Josh
So three Sabbath days means he was there for three weeks.
Pastor Josh
So he would come and speak on their Sabbath, which would be basically Saturday, and he would come in and he would speak each Sabbath in the synagogue.
Pastor Josh
And so he said, it said there that he spoke three Sabbath days.
Pastor Josh
And then it says this phrase here, reason with them out of the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
Now, I want you to think about that phrase, reason with them from the Scriptures, because there's a lot of significance to that, because that is how we are supposed to deal with individuals that need Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
Reason with them out of the Scriptures, not reason with them with man's wisdom or reason with them out of some kind of argument in accordance to pragmatic thinking.
Pastor Josh
Now, when I use that word, pragmatic, what does that mean?
Pastor Josh
Pragmatic means it works.
Pastor Josh
So a lot of people preach religion in a pragmatic way.
Pastor Josh
Well, if this makes your life better, you need to believe it.
Pastor Josh
And though Jesus makes our life better, we understand that that doesn't always look like a material better.
Pastor Josh
It doesn't always look like a physical better.
Pastor Josh
It might be a spiritual better, but it might not be what the world is seeking after.
Pastor Josh
So it says there that he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
And this was his custom.
Pastor Josh
The Greek word for reason is really the root word that we get for the word in English, dialogue.
Pastor Josh
So he dialogues with them, he has a conversation with them.
Pastor Josh
And so essentially, what we See is he discusses Scripture with these people.
Pastor Josh
And so Paul did the work of explaining to them about Scripture.
Pastor Josh
So verse three, it says, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead.
Pastor Josh
This looks exactly like what we were talking about this morning.
Pastor Josh
Paul comes to them and it says here, opening and alleging.
Pastor Josh
Basically, he op.
Pastor Josh
Literally it's saying he opened the Scriptures and reason with them and explained to them the Gospel.
Pastor Josh
Now we have to understand Paul didn't have the New Testament as we have it today.
Pastor Josh
So we know what Paul is doing is he's referring back to the Old Testament and appealing to, to the prophecies of Jesus and showing that Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies.
Pastor Josh
But nonetheless, Paul is preaching the gospel.
Pastor Josh
We could preach the gospel from the New Testament.
Pastor Josh
We could preach the gospel from the Old Testament.
Pastor Josh
There is a very common teaching out there today that says, remove the Old Testament and all we need is the new.
Pastor Josh
We do need the new, but we also need the old.
Pastor Josh
You can preach the gospel from Isaiah 53.
Pastor Josh
You can preach the gospel from the book of Genesis.
Pastor Josh
Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 is called the proto evangelium, which means the first gospel.
Pastor Josh
If you look at Genesis 3:15, what does it say?
Pastor Josh
It talks all about that the seed of the woman would crush the seed of man, the seed of the serpent, right?
Pastor Josh
And so there would be that conflict, that good and evil, but ultimately Christ would come and be the Messiah and give us salvation.
Pastor Josh
And so I think it's important for us to think about how Paul brings the gospel to these people.
Pastor Josh
And I'll remember he's bringing the gospel to religious people.
Pastor Josh
He's bringing the gospel to people who are devout.
Pastor Josh
A lot of times we think that we're bringing the gospel to people that are completely unaware of the truth of Jesus Christ or completely unaware of religion or completely unaware of the Bible.
Pastor Josh
And that is sometimes the case.
Pastor Josh
We, we do see that Paul does preach to people that are unaware of any religion.
Pastor Josh
But we do see, for the most part, though, that Paul preaches to people who have some semblance of understanding of God, God and of the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
And that's important because one time I used to think that, that if someone's in church, they must know about the gospel.
Pastor Josh
If someone's in church, they must know what the Bible says about Jesus, about salvation, about forgiveness.
Pastor Josh
But I'm going to tell you, folks, I.
Pastor Josh
I grew up in a Christian home, I grew up in a Christian school, but yet I didn't get saved until I was 16 years old.
Pastor Josh
It was because I knew intellectually, I knew in my mind what the Bible said about the gospel, but I had yet believed it.
Pastor Josh
And so what Paul does here is he's not just teaching them facts.
Pastor Josh
He's opening the Scriptures and alleging, or really what we would say is explaining the Gospel to them in a way that they can understand.
Pastor Josh
So he says what, what is he alleging?
Pastor Josh
What is he trying to convince them of?
Pastor Josh
That Christ needs to have suffered and he needs to be risen again from the dead in their minds.
Pastor Josh
And that Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ or the Messiah.
Pastor Josh
So what is he preaching?
Pastor Josh
He's preaching Jesus.
Pastor Josh
He's preaching salvation through Jesus and Jesus alone.
Pastor Josh
He's preaching the complete Gospel, his life, death, burial and resurrection.
Pastor Josh
And so there's a lesson that we can learn here from Paul as he's preaching, and it ties right together with what we talked about this morning.
Pastor Josh
He's preaching plainly, he's preaching powerfully.
Pastor Josh
We're going to see here he preaches persistently and no doubt he was doing it prayerfully.
Pastor Josh
If we look at Paul's life, he.
Pastor Josh
He is a man of prayer.
Pastor Josh
And so he comes and preaches the complete, authentic gospel, nothing pulled back.
Pastor Josh
He preaches Christ to them.
Pastor Josh
And so what's the result?
Pastor Josh
Well, the result's going to be here that some believe and some of them believed.
Pastor Josh
So there are individuals that are in the synagogue that are hearing the truth.
Pastor Josh
Some are going to believe and some aren't going to believe.
Pastor Josh
What's the distinction?
Pastor Josh
What's the difference?
Pastor Josh
What's the difference between the people that believe and don't believe?
Pastor Josh
Well, we see here that when verse four.
Pastor Josh
And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and the devout Greeks, a great multitude of them, chief women, not of a few, meaning the Greeks and the women were the ones actually believing.
Pastor Josh
And many of the religious Jews weren't believing.
Pastor Josh
We're going to see here in a few moments that it was their pride that was holding them back from believing the truth of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
And so there are individuals like the Greeks and even the women here, which at this time frame, these were the ones that were considered lower in class than the religious men.
Pastor Josh
But the Bible knows that these were the ones predominantly were the ones that were getting saved because they were coming with humility, they were coming with a sense of openness.
Pastor Josh
But we see verse five.
Pastor Josh
But the Jews which believe not.
Pastor Josh
So here's the distinction.
Pastor Josh
It's really this.
Pastor Josh
Those who believed in the message and those who didn't believe the message.
Pastor Josh
Paul isn't preaching a different message to these people that believe and then a failure message over to here to these people that believe.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes we think that when people don't believe, it's a failure.
Pastor Josh
It's, it's not a failure if you present the gospel to the best of your ability.
Pastor Josh
And, and what we can see here is that there's some people believing, some people not believing.
Pastor Josh
Verse 5.
Pastor Josh
But the Jews which believe not moved with envy, jealousy, pride.
Pastor Josh
So we see what holds back these individuals from coming to Christ and it's their pride, it's their envious nature, it's their jealousy.
Pastor Josh
And so Paul emphasized in all of this who Jesus is.
Pastor Josh
He is the Christ, he is the one who died, he is the one who rose again.
Pastor Josh
And so some of them were persuaded, persuaded there was a good response from some.
Pastor Josh
The, the greatest multitude of believers were the Greeks.
Pastor Josh
They were the women.
Pastor Josh
But what we can see here is that their jealousy, their envy got the best of them.
Pastor Josh
And so just like places like Antioch, just like places like Iconium and Lystra and Paul's first missionary journey, there is a mob incited by envious people, prideful people.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can see here is that the indication of their belief is linked to their humility.
Pastor Josh
The indication of their unbelief is linked to their pride.
Pastor Josh
So what we can say is this.
Pastor Josh
It's the classic principle that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Pastor Josh
The more we respond in pride and envy to the message of the gospel, the more we are self focused in the gospel, the more we come to a place in our life where we reject the gospel.
Pastor Josh
And so we see here in verse 5 that the Jews which believe not moved with envy took unto them certain.
Pastor Josh
And this is, I like the, how the King James puts this because it makes it very proper.
Pastor Josh
It says this certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.
Pastor Josh
We don't use that very common that.
Pastor Josh
My, my old pastor used to use that for people that were difficult.
Pastor Josh
He was like, we've got some lewd fellows of the baser sword over here.
Pastor Josh
That's a nice way to say that these were bad guys.
Pastor Josh
They weren't the good guys in town.
Pastor Josh
They were the ones that were looking for a fight.
Pastor Josh
They were fellows that were inappropriate.
Pastor Josh
They were rabble arousers.
Pastor Josh
They were the ones that were in the fight all the time.
Pastor Josh
They were known to be troublemakers.
Pastor Josh
And so these religious Jewish people that claim to be the highest in society when it came to believing in God got envious of Paul's Success in preaching the gospel, that they went and they got the bad people in town, the rabble rousers, the lewd fellows of a baser sort, and they said, let's cause some issues, let's stir up the pot.
Pastor Josh
And so they get these guys and they go and they attack a fella named Jason.
Pastor Josh
Now why do they attack Jason?
Pastor Josh
Well, we're going to find out why here in a few moments.
Pastor Josh
So he gets these, these, they get these lewd fellows of the baser sort and they gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar.
Pastor Josh
So a little 11, 11, if the whole lump, right, we see that there's a group of people that are upset with what Paul is doing and Silas and the rest of them, that they cause a riot and it says, and they assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
Pastor Josh
Now why did they attack the house of Jason?
Pastor Josh
Well, most commentators believe that Jason's house was the centerpiece for the ministry of Paul and Silas in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
Now you remember that they went to the synagogue to preach, but they met in homes at this time frame.
Pastor Josh
So it was probably Jason's house that was known as the Christians meeting place in the place of Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
So Jason is the one housing and taking care of Paul and Silas and the other Christians there.
Pastor Josh
So they attacked Jason's house.
Pastor Josh
And it says in verse six.
Pastor Josh
And when they found them not meaning Paul and Silas, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither.
Pastor Josh
Also.
Pastor Josh
I like that phrase that they use there.
Pastor Josh
They basically say that Paul and Silas and the apostles have turned the world upside down.
Pastor Josh
Man.
Pastor Josh
Wouldn't it be an amazing thing if people would say that about Christians today?
Pastor Josh
These Christians are turning the world upside down by the way that they're living their life now.
Pastor Josh
I, I don't believe that they were turning the world upside down.
Pastor Josh
They actually were turning the world right side up, right?
Pastor Josh
The world has been twisted and these preachers were turning the world to the right place.
Pastor Josh
But, but again, what did we mention this morning?
Pastor Josh
That when you live in a world of lies and evil, when you live for the truth, you seem strange, you seem weird, you seem like the one out of place.
Pastor Josh
And so Paul and Silas and these folks that were preaching the gospel seemed out of place and they were accused of turning the world upside down.
Pastor Josh
And so basically they pull Jason and his friends here out into the city and they say, hey, these guys are the ones that are homing the apostles.
Pastor Josh
These are the ones that are homing the individuals who are turning the world upside down.
Pastor Josh
And so they attack Jason.
Pastor Josh
They attack these individuals that were Christians.
Pastor Josh
And so they accused these Christians before the rulers of the city, these evil men of the city.
Pastor Josh
Gave, I would say, a compliment to God's people here.
Pastor Josh
Like, I would love for people to say, hey, there's a pastor over Middletown Baptist Church that's causing trouble by leading people to Christ.
Pastor Josh
That would be like, thank you.
Pastor Josh
Appreciate that.
Pastor Josh
Because when the world comes against us, it shows us that we're doing the right thing.
Pastor Josh
When Satan comes against us, it's not so much that he's coming against us, he's coming against the Lord.
Pastor Josh
And we're on that side.
Pastor Josh
And I would encourage you, when Jesus says, hey, they don't hate you, they hate me.
Pastor Josh
And when you're on my side, they're going to hate you, too.
Pastor Josh
And so when the world comes against us, that's an indication that we're doing the right thing.
Pastor Josh
When the world is confused by our decisions that we make and mocks us, that shows us that we're doing the right thing.
Pastor Josh
And so this shows that Paul and Silas and the rest of these folks that were on the missionary group were doing the right thing.
Pastor Josh
And so they were complaining that these Christians were causing a stir in their status quo.
Pastor Josh
This is the same thing that was accused of Jesus.
Pastor Josh
Remember what Jesus, when he came in, he.
Pastor Josh
He makes this triumphal entry the week before he goes to the cross.
Pastor Josh
And as Jesus is coming down, everyone's celebrating him, right?
Pastor Josh
They're.
Pastor Josh
They're saying, hosanna, this is our Savior, our Messiah.
Pastor Josh
They're waving palm branches, which was a symbol for victory.
Pastor Josh
They were throwing their clothes in the way, and Jesus rides in on a donkey.
Pastor Josh
And by the way, that was a very clear indication that Jesus was claiming to be Messiah.
Pastor Josh
They were all aware of what Jesus was proclaiming on that trip down the Palm Sunday road.
Pastor Josh
But the problem was, is that Jesus didn't do what they expected him to do.
Pastor Josh
Jesus actually came in and started calling out the religious leaders.
Pastor Josh
He started saying, hey, if you remember, he turned the tables over.
Pastor Josh
He said, you guys are ruining what God has said for us to do.
Pastor Josh
He made the house of prayer a house of thieves, basically, is what he was saying.
Pastor Josh
And so Jesus was turning the status quo on its head.
Pastor Josh
And what it was, really, what the status quo was in Jesus's time was that the Pharisees would abuse people like widows.
Pastor Josh
They would.
Pastor Josh
They would basically take the widows in and try to give them financial advice and abuse their money and take their money.
Pastor Josh
And so Jesus comes in and says, this is not the way religion should be lived out.
Pastor Josh
This is not the way you show love to people.
Pastor Josh
And so they were getting really upset.
Pastor Josh
Why did they get so mad at Jesus?
Pastor Josh
Because he was trying to change their status quo.
Pastor Josh
That's why they're getting so mad at Paul and Silas, because he's coming in and he's preaching a different message.
Pastor Josh
Not a message of bring us money.
Pastor Josh
Not a message of follow the law.
Pastor Josh
Not a message of you have to be religious.
Pastor Josh
It's a message of Jesus Christ, a message of forgiveness, a message of freedom, a message of grace.
Pastor Josh
And that's not a message that's received very well.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can see here is that they are upset.
Pastor Josh
And so it says here in verse 7, whom Jason hath received.
Pastor Josh
And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar.
Pastor Josh
So they appeal to, in their minds, the highest power.
Pastor Josh
Instead of appealing to God, they appeal to Caesar.
Pastor Josh
And they say, these guys are breaking Caesar's law by saying that there is another king.
Pastor Josh
That's what they say there, that they're breaking the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
Pastor Josh
So what Paul and Silas were saying is that there is one king, Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
He's our ultimate leader.
Pastor Josh
And the people said, well, you know, what we can use against them is that they're going against Caesar.
Pastor Josh
And this was a serious charge.
Pastor Josh
This was a charge that would have caused them to face great punishment.
Pastor Josh
The charge was so serious enough that it troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city.
Pastor Josh
When they heard these things, it raised fear in their mind that their city might be known as an opposition to Caesar.
Pastor Josh
And you don't want to be in opposition to Caesar, because Caesar was the ruler of the world at the time.
Pastor Josh
Caesar was in control.
Pastor Josh
I mean, people feared him.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can see here is that they appeal to the fear of man.
Pastor Josh
They appear.
Pastor Josh
They.
Pastor Josh
They appeal to the power of man instead of the power of God.
Pastor Josh
And so we see that this is another distinction that shows the contrast between those who believed and they didn't believe.
Pastor Josh
The ones who believe were willing to call Jesus king.
Pastor Josh
The ones who didn't believe were calling Caesar king.
Pastor Josh
And really, by extension, they were calling themselves kings, because that's really what we do when we don't submit ourselves to Christ.
Pastor Josh
What we do is we exalt ourselves.
Pastor Josh
We exalt ourselves above Christ.
Pastor Josh
And that's what these folks were doing here.
Pastor Josh
But they use Caesar as an excuse.
Pastor Josh
And so really, their fears were unfounded.
Pastor Josh
Even though the gospel has.
Pastor Josh
Has definite political implications.
Pastor Josh
It.
Pastor Josh
It.
Pastor Josh
I believe.
Pastor Josh
I believe when we live as Christians, we become better citizens.
Pastor Josh
Actually, if you think about it, if you think about it from the concept of how we are to submit to authority unless it contrasts against the word of God.
Pastor Josh
Right?
Pastor Josh
And there's that struggle that we all face.
Pastor Josh
Romans, chapter 13 says, hey, follow the laws of the land.
Pastor Josh
But then Paul or, or, excuse me, Peter says in the book of Acts, we obey God rather than man.
Pastor Josh
Well, sometimes people say that's a contradiction.
Pastor Josh
It's not a contradiction.
Pastor Josh
We're to obey the laws of the land unless it contradicts with what we believe about scripture.
Pastor Josh
Now, that's a hard pill to swallow.
Pastor Josh
I, I can show you in scripture what I mean by that.
Pastor Josh
Now, this doesn't mean that we don't have a voice.
Pastor Josh
And this, this doesn't mean that we don't fight for freedoms and we fight for our rights.
Pastor Josh
I think we should.
Pastor Josh
And so, so don't get me wrong, but this, what this is basically saying here is this it?
Pastor Josh
Like, I can't just go out.
Pastor Josh
Let's use the speed limit as an example.
Pastor Josh
I can't just go out and say, well, I'm a Christian and I obey God rather than man, and I don't like going 35 miles an hour down Middletown.
Pastor Josh
I could go a lot faster safely.
Pastor Josh
So I'm just going to go whatever speed I want.
Pastor Josh
No, that's a, that's a legitimate rule from the land that has no biblical implication.
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
There are other laws of the land that have infringed upon our Christian biblical beliefs.
Pastor Josh
And therefore we are able to exercise our obedience to God.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore we don't say that the law of the land is the highest law.
Pastor Josh
We say that God's law is the highest law.
Pastor Josh
But we are good citizens until it contradicts with the law of God, with the word of God.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can see here is that they're all worried of this rebellion, but really, if they would have all become Christians in Thessalonica, they would have been a better place to live.
Pastor Josh
If you've studied ancient Rome, if you've studied those places that Rome ruled for a long time, those were not great places to live.
Pastor Josh
Those were not safe places to live.
Pastor Josh
There was debauchery, there was evil.
Pastor Josh
I don't need to go into a lot of this, but toward the tail end of the Roman Empire, it was pretty much the most filthy place you could live.
Pastor Josh
And that is one of the major reasons why the Roman Empire folded, because they basically were eroded from the inside out.
Pastor Josh
Their morals were gone by the end.
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And there's a great study.
Pastor Josh
This has nothing to do with the Bible, but I would say it's a great study, historically speaking, looking at ancient Rome and the way that they decline and looking at similarities to how Western, specifically United States are.
Pastor Josh
Are moving towards.
Pastor Josh
And I'm going be, you know, curious to see what you think about that.
Pastor Josh
But anyway, I'm going to move forward a little bit.
Pastor Josh
Here we see there in verse number eight, it says, and they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
Pastor Josh
And when they had taken security of Jason and of the others, they let them go.
Pastor Josh
So they.
Pastor Josh
They let Jason and these others go.
Pastor Josh
And when it says there and they take in security, basically Jason makes bail.
Pastor Josh
He gives them some money so that he can get out.
Pastor Josh
Jason and his friends get out and they go back.
Pastor Josh
And so verse 10, and the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Pastor Josh
And so they leave.
Pastor Josh
So Paul and Silas and the rest of the group are only there for three weeks, and all of this implodes.
Pastor Josh
This is like, hey, get out of here.
Pastor Josh
They're going to kill you.
Pastor Josh
God directed Paul and Silas away.
Pastor Josh
Now, it's always interesting for me to see where Paul and Silas stay somewhere.
Pastor Josh
When Paul stays and faces persecution and when he runs.
Pastor Josh
And I struggle with that sometimes because I'm like, what makes him stay in one area and get beat to death?
Pastor Josh
And other times he just leaves.
Pastor Josh
I believe it's the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Josh
I believe the Holy Spirit led Paul and Silas out of here to get to a place called Berea.
Pastor Josh
And so it looks like, at least in my eyes, if I was to read just acts chapter 17 on its own, I would say, wow, Paul and Silas really failed in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
They went out and preached.
Pastor Josh
Some people got saved, but they ran out and Thessalonica has no hope.
Pastor Josh
But pause in Acts chapter 17 and turn with me to first Thessalonians, chapter 1.
Pastor Josh
Now remember, first and second Thessalonians are books of the Bible written to this very same church.
Pastor Josh
And so, you know, Paul started this church.
Pastor Josh
Three weeks later, he leaves.
Pastor Josh
What was the outcome?
Pastor Josh
We would think.
Pastor Josh
I mean, I would think, I don't want to speak for you, but I would think after three weeks of leaving, there's not going to be any church there.
Pastor Josh
It's going to fail.
Pastor Josh
It's going to.
Pastor Josh
It's going to fall.
Pastor Josh
But we see that the power of God is greater than that.
Pastor Josh
We see that even though there were a small amount of people saved there, great things are going to happen.
Pastor Josh
They're not perfect.
Pastor Josh
But it does say in First Thessalonians, we'll look at.
Pastor Josh
Let's look at First Thessalonians chapter one and let's look at verse eight.
Pastor Josh
This is really cool.
Pastor Josh
This is really exciting because even though these individuals were left by Paul and Silas after three weeks, it says in verse eight, for from you talking about the church in Thessalonica, for from you sounded out the word of God not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.
Pastor Josh
Your faith to God word is spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything.
Pastor Josh
Meaning this church was known for sounding or sharing the word of the Lord all over the known world.
Pastor Josh
Thessalonica was a successful church.
Pastor Josh
It goes on to say more and more later on verse nine, it says, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for the Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Pastor Josh
So it seems that later some people began teaching the truth.
Pastor Josh
Due to the short amount of time that Paul spent in Thessalonica, he was concerned about the church there.
Pastor Josh
We see over and over again that he says it's actually in First Thessalonians chapter two, he said, I wanted to come back, but Satan blocked our way.
Pastor Josh
We know that later on, Paul sent Timothy to check in and encourage them in 1st Thessalonians chapter 3.
Pastor Josh
And Paul was concerned that the tempter, the Bible says the tempter, Satan in some way would tempt them away from their truth.
Pastor Josh
But Timothy returned to Paul bringing good news about the Thessalonican church and how they were thriving.
Pastor Josh
So it seems that later, eventually in Second Thessalonians, some people came in and started preaching false doctrine and.
Pastor Josh
But ultimately they were focused on the coming of the Lord.
Pastor Josh
And so the church of Thessalonica was located in a prominent city, had a great deal of opportunity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
And just like the church in Thessalonica, many churches today are planted in difficult areas of the Gospel.
Pastor Josh
But yet it's the power of God that shows the success and not the location of the church or the time that the church has had in planning.
Pastor Josh
I know that three Weeks doesn't sound like a lot.
Pastor Josh
I mean, for me, it blows my mind.
Pastor Josh
People go to Bible college for like, eight years and they still struggle.
Pastor Josh
And these people went to Bible college for three weeks with Paul, and some of them were only saved for three weeks.
Pastor Josh
But God preserved this church because of his power.
Pastor Josh
And I think it's important for us to see that it doesn't take a lot for us to follow Christ.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes we think that it has to be led by someone that has this much education or it has to have this many ministries or.
Pastor Josh
Or this much money.
Pastor Josh
Folks, we can do a lot for the cause of the gospel with the power of God.
Pastor Josh
It could be a small little faction of people, but that ultimately can show the power of God more and more.
Pastor Josh
And even Paul said in 2 Corinthians, he says, when I'm weak, that's when God's strong, when the church is at its weakest and what we would say is the most vulnerable.
Pastor Josh
That's when God can really shine brightly through us.
Pastor Josh
He can shine brightly through us at all points.
Pastor Josh
But you know what?
Pastor Josh
It's sometimes hard when we have a lot of freedoms.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes.
Pastor Josh
What is that statement?
Pastor Josh
Like, hard times make good men, but then good men make easy times, and easy times make weak men, right?
Pastor Josh
Or something like that.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes what happens is that there's so many people that fight for the cause of the gospel, that we have so much religious freedom.
Pastor Josh
We've been so infiltrated with the gospel and our culture that we've become so weak in our witness because we haven't had to stand for our faith.
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And we can see that in the Book of Acts and even in places around the world today where there is persecution, there actually is a very, very strong remnant of the church.
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And there are people getting saved in places that you can die for your faith.
Pastor Josh
We had a fellow from India come in and he was talking about how there's persecution there, but still people getting saved.
Pastor Josh
There's places that are closed off that we can't even mention where these missionaries are going.
Pastor Josh
But he says, hey, people are still getting saved.
Pastor Josh
And so it's not just about freedom of religion that causes people to get saved.
Pastor Josh
Thank God we have freedom of religion in our country.
Pastor Josh
But what I would say as Christians is that we don't need to lean on that as a crutch to say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
We can do it whenever we want to do it.
Pastor Josh
We need to be able to say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
Would I preach the gospel even if people were against me, would I preach the gospel, even if people said that's a law that we're breaking, I've often thought about that.
Pastor Josh
I've often thought about, like, what if, what if.
Pastor Josh
What if a government came in and said, you can preach about this, but you can't preach about that.
Pastor Josh
I would like to say that I would continue to preach the truth of the gospel, but the fear of man can grip us.
Pastor Josh
You saw what happened back in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
The fear of man gripped those religious people.
Pastor Josh
They're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Pastor Josh
That's not what we like.
Pastor Josh
We don't want that.
Pastor Josh
So the religious Jewish people got upset when the Greeks were getting saved.
Pastor Josh
They got upset when the women were getting saved because they're like, we can't control them anymore.
Pastor Josh
Because this is talking about the freedom of Christ, not the.
Pastor Josh
Not the control of man.
Pastor Josh
And so what I would say to you tonight is this.
Pastor Josh
When we look at the Church of Thessalonica, we can see a lot of flaws.
Pastor Josh
We can see the envious people there, we can see the prideful people there, or we can see the people that were open and willing to say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I'm going to serve Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
No matter how much opposition is there.
Pastor Josh
Because you know what?
Pastor Josh
When Paul and Silas and the rest of the guys left, the church didn't leave and God didn't leave.
Pastor Josh
The power of God stayed there in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
And to this day, I believe that there are believers there in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
So 2,000 years later, God has still been faithful to the faithful people there.
Pastor Josh
And so that's what it means for us today.
Pastor Josh
No matter what happens in our country, no matter what's going to happen in 2025, no matter what opposition that we face internally, externally, physical, spiritual, emotional, hey, God is still in control.
Pastor Josh
God is still going to be with us.
Pastor Josh
The power of God is not weak.
Pastor Josh
He's not the King.
Pastor Josh
James says it this way.
Pastor Josh
God is not slack concerning his promises as some men are.
Pastor Josh
Meaning this.
Pastor Josh
We fail sometimes when we make a promise to somebody, we fail no matter if we want to or not.
Pastor Josh
Like, I've made promises to people that I wanted to keep, but because of my failures and because of my weakness, I.
Pastor Josh
I didn't keep those words.
Pastor Josh
But God, when he makes his word true, it stays true.
Pastor Josh
He doesn't take back what he says.
Pastor Josh
And so the Bible says he's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.
Pastor Josh
And so God's goal for us is to preach the gospel, to live the gospel.
Pastor Josh
And we see these wonderful things happen.
Pastor Josh
So I think it's an amazing story to see.
Pastor Josh
Yes, Thessalonica had some struggles.
Pastor Josh
They weren't the greatest of people there chasing Paul out.
Pastor Josh
And we're actually going to see that.
Pastor Josh
The next place that Paul goes, which is probably one of my favorite passages of scripture, is when Paul goes to Berea and we see the distinction between the Thessalonicans and the Bereans, the Thessalonians and the Bereans.
Pastor Josh
It basically says the Bereans were better because they searched the scriptures, they tested what Paul said.
Pastor Josh
And next week we're going to get, hopefully, Lord willing, if the weather holds up, we're going to come back and we're going to look at the study there in Paul studying and going through Acts 17 and looking at Berea and how we can be Bereans.
Pastor Josh
Actually, the challenge for us all is to be like the Bereans.
Pastor Josh
And so I hope that you can come back for that.
Pastor Josh
So as, as we conclude here today, I, I want you to think about what did Paul do?
Pastor Josh
He appealed to the gospel.
Pastor Josh
He, he opened the scriptures, he reasoned with them.
Pastor Josh
So let's think about it this way.
Pastor Josh
We can reason with people from the scriptures.
Pastor Josh
How do we reason with people from the Scriptures?
Pastor Josh
It says there, we open the scriptures.
Pastor Josh
You got to open the scriptures to reason with people about the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
Open the scriptures.
Pastor Josh
And then the King James says to, to allege or to try to convince or to explain the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
So to reason in the scriptures, to open the scriptures, to explain the scriptures, we have to know the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
And I believe that's why the next mention there of Berea is because the Bereans sought the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
You, you, you can't teach the scriptures unless you know the scriptures.
Pastor Josh
If someone comes up to you, maybe they know you're a Christian.
Pastor Josh
Let's think about this for a second.
Pastor Josh
Let's put ourselves in a real world, real, real world situation.
Pastor Josh
Someone walks up to you and they say, hey, I heard you're a Christian.
Pastor Josh
What do you guys believe about?
Pastor Josh
And they fill in the blank.
Pastor Josh
Okay, now they could say something that the Bible doesn't talk about, but what can you do with that?
Pastor Josh
Well, you could probably find some kind of biblical principle, some kind of biblical passage that could tie something in there.
Pastor Josh
Or they might say something very clearly.
Pastor Josh
For example, what do you think about this hot button issue in the news?
Pastor Josh
And it's of clear sin.
Pastor Josh
And you could say, well, let me show you what the Bible says now, what I feel, because what Happens sometimes is we as Christians have good intentions, but we come across as bigoted because we just explain what we feel about something, and that's okay.
Pastor Josh
I mean, you can have feelings about something.
Pastor Josh
But you know what's a lot more compelling for someone, whether they're going to believe Scripture or not, is for me to go, well, my.
Pastor Josh
My scriptures, God's word to me, says this on this passage.
Pastor Josh
And people could either do one of two things.
Pastor Josh
They can either agree with you and say, okay, I see that, or they can say, well, I don't believe the Bible.
Pastor Josh
But.
Pastor Josh
But it's.
Pastor Josh
Again, it's not you.
Pastor Josh
It's.
Pastor Josh
It's the scriptures.
Pastor Josh
You're reasoning from the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
What happens is, is that we usually tend to reason from our own opinions and our own attitudes and then maybe get to Scripture at some point.
Pastor Josh
But what I would encourage you to do is know your scriptures so well that when someone comes and says, hey, if you're a Christian, what do you guys believe about this?
Pastor Josh
You're able to say, well, we believe this because of this reasoning from the Scriptures.
Pastor Josh
And so what Paul was able to do was he was able to say, hey, you know what?
Pastor Josh
This is why we believe Jesus Christ crucified because of this passage in Isaiah 53, because of this passage in Micah 5, because of this passage in.
Pastor Josh
In all these Jeremiah.
Pastor Josh
And he goes through the Old Testament and he reasons with them.
Pastor Josh
And so are you able.
Pastor Josh
Am I able to reason from the Scriptures the truth of Jesus Christ?
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And there.
Pastor Josh
There are people that are looking right now.
Pastor Josh
I mean, there's a lot of very popular people in our culture today that are not known to be Christians, but they're seeking after something.
Pastor Josh
They're seeking after the truth.
Pastor Josh
The word of God is actually being mentioned more and more these days.
Pastor Josh
If you get on the Internet, there are people searching now.
Pastor Josh
There's a lot of people being misled.
Pastor Josh
But we as Christians have an awesome opportunity to show people substance in a world with no substance.
Pastor Josh
When we show them the real thing, it's different.
Pastor Josh
There's so much counterfeit gospels out there today.
Pastor Josh
There's like, counterfeit this, counterfeit that.
Pastor Josh
Hey, you know what, man?
Pastor Josh
Don't get on the.
Pastor Josh
I would warn you to stay off the Internet as much as you can, because there's some really wacky things on the Internet.
Pastor Josh
I can tell you.
Pastor Josh
I.
Pastor Josh
I get stuck in rabbit holes trying to do research for sermons, and I get down these rabbit holes of these people that believe some really wacky things.
Pastor Josh
But what I will say to you is that Understand this.
Pastor Josh
As people are looking for the truth, they're finding all these weird things.
Pastor Josh
And when we show them the real thing, it's different.
Pastor Josh
You know, I don't know if any of you have ever worked in a bank.
Pastor Josh
I've never worked in a bank, but I've heard this.
Pastor Josh
I don't know for sure, but this is what I've heard, that when they're teaching people how to identify authenticity, they don't teach them all the counterfeits.
Pastor Josh
They just teach them what the authentic one looks like.
Pastor Josh
And then from there, we can know anything, because people can come up with counterfeits different every day.
Pastor Josh
But if we know what the authentic thing is, we're able to present that and know that.
Pastor Josh
What I would tell you is this.
Pastor Josh
Present the authentic gospel.
Pastor Josh
You don't have to worry about, well, all these people believe this and all these people believe that.
Pastor Josh
Believe what you believe about scripture and reason from the scriptures.
Pastor Josh
And when you reason from the scriptures, you're able to have a.
Pastor Josh
A defense.
Pastor Josh
Your defense is, well, this is the Bible.
Pastor Josh
This thing will not fail us.
Pastor Josh
I will tell you that.
Pastor Josh
Scripture will not fail.
Pastor Josh
Everything else will fail.
Pastor Josh
My mind will fail by.
Pastor Josh
Usually by Sunday night about this time, my words are so scrambled up, I've said so much stuff, my brain is.
Pastor Josh
Is about fried.
Pastor Josh
But you know what?
Pastor Josh
Even if my brain is fried, if I reason with Scripture, I'm okay.
Pastor Josh
Because if I can say to someone, hey, you know what?
Pastor Josh
The Bible says this about marriage.
Pastor Josh
Let's just get real tonight.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says this about what?
Pastor Josh
What Genesis?
Pastor Josh
Well, Jesus never said anything about marriage.
Pastor Josh
Yeah, Jesus did.
Pastor Josh
Jesus did appeal in the Gospels.
Pastor Josh
He says it said that a man is supposed to leave his wife, or, excuse him, leave his wife.
Pastor Josh
Let me rephrase that.
Pastor Josh
It's late.
Pastor Josh
Leave his parents and cling to his wife and become one flesh.
Pastor Josh
Jesus appeals to what the book of Genesis says.
Pastor Josh
Jesus very clearly defines what marriage is in accordance to the Old Testament.
Pastor Josh
So the people that deny that Jesus believed in a literal Old Testament deny that Jesus.
Pastor Josh
Jesus referred to Jonah and, and being in the fish for three days.
Pastor Josh
Jesus appealed to all the Old Testament prophets.
Pastor Josh
And so Jesus believed that that was all real too.
Pastor Josh
So what we have to do is we have to say if Jesus, if anybody didn't have to reason from the scriptures, it was Jesus.
Pastor Josh
Right?
Pastor Josh
Jesus didn't have to go back and refer back to the Old Testament, but he did.
Pastor Josh
Why?
Pastor Josh
Because there's power there.
Pastor Josh
It's the word of God.
Pastor Josh
And so if Jesus relied on scriptures for his reasoning, I think we should as well.
Pastor Josh
And so I would encourage you to think about that.
Pastor Josh
So it's not just pragmatism.
Pastor Josh
Jesus makes your life better.
Pastor Josh
I don't like sharing that with people.
Pastor Josh
I mean, I understand what we mean by that because he does make our life better.
Pastor Josh
But, you know, getting eight hours of sleep makes my life better.
Pastor Josh
Eating healthy makes my life better.
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
So if you equate Jesus just to a He's a help to you.
Pastor Josh
That's, that's, that's, that's lowering the truth of the gospel.
Pastor Josh
We have to say that Jesus is everything.
Pastor Josh
We're dead in our sins.
Pastor Josh
And so Jesus isn't just going to help you.
Pastor Josh
Jesus is going to save you.
Pastor Josh
He's going to give you life.
Pastor Josh
And I heard, I was watching a video speaking of that.
Pastor Josh
I was watching a video today in my sermon prep, and there was this atheist, and he got up there and he was talking and he says, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I appreciate Christians who proselytize, they witness.
Pastor Josh
He was like.
Pastor Josh
Because that shows at least that they're true about what they believe.
Pastor Josh
Was like, because if they really believe that I'm going to hell because of my sin and they don't tell me the truth of the gospel, man, that's pretty hateful.
Pastor Josh
He said, like, what if I was standing down the road and there was a truck coming?
Pastor Josh
You looked and you said, well, whatever.
Pastor Josh
He was like, that wouldn't be very kind and loving.
Pastor Josh
So he says, I actually appreciate he's an atheist.
Pastor Josh
He doesn't believe in God.
Pastor Josh
But he says, I actually appreciate the Christians who will try to tell me how to be saved because at least they're showing that they believe what they believe.
Pastor Josh
And how convicting is that of us as Christians that say, well, I believe that these people are going to hell if they don't believe, but I'm not willing to share with them.
Pastor Josh
That shows really no love.
Pastor Josh
And so Paul was concerned about these people in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
And I think for us, if we are true about what we believe, we would be telling more people.
Pastor Josh
We would be living differently.
Pastor Josh
And I think that that's something that we all should take with us as a challenge.
Pastor Josh
It takes for me, as a challenge, because you know what I always, I try to justify in my own mind, well, that person really doesn't want to hear that right now.
Pastor Josh
I don't want to offend that person.
Pastor Josh
I don't want to step on that person's toes.
Pastor Josh
But if I love them, like, if I had a family member that I knew Wasn't saved.
Pastor Josh
And I love them so much.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to tell them the truth.
Pastor Josh
Like, I'm not going to sit with my children and go, I don't want to offend my son.
Pastor Josh
You know, I love my son with all my heart.
Pastor Josh
I love my daughter with all my heart.
Pastor Josh
I love all my children.
Pastor Josh
I love all my family.
Pastor Josh
I'm not going to sit there and go, I'm worried about offending them by telling them the truth.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to tell them the truth because I love them.
Pastor Josh
But why does that then transfer over to when we deal with other people?
Pastor Josh
We go, well, not, not important, not my problem.
Pastor Josh
It's, it's really what it is.
Pastor Josh
And I'm speaking from my own life.
Pastor Josh
This might not be you, but for me it's a lack of love for that person.
Pastor Josh
I don't love that person enough to stretch myself, to challenge myself, to tell them about Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
And so I think that that's something to think about.
Pastor Josh
When we look at Paul and his boldness, those people were not kind to him.
Pastor Josh
Paul went probably Paul went into most of these places knowing that people are going to chase them out, but he still preached the gospel to them.
Pastor Josh
And I think that all of us have, to this day, I don't think any of you have ever been chased out of a building.
Pastor Josh
Chased.
Pastor Josh
Maybe you have been chased out of a building.
Pastor Josh
I've been chased out of a building, but for a couple of different reasons.
Pastor Josh
But most of us, if we share the gospel with people, they're not going to fight us, they're not going to punch us, they're not going to whip us with, you know, cat of nine tails from the Roman Empire or spirits.
Pastor Josh
Most of the time people might scoff and just turn away.
Pastor Josh
And so when we get to 20, 25, I'm not saying that we, we proselytize like, you know, you, you, you.
Pastor Josh
I mean, it wouldn't be a problem if you pass out tracks to every person that you came across and, and, and witness to them.
Pastor Josh
But what I would say is what Paul prayed, Paul prayed for something called door of utterance.
Pastor Josh
It's like basically Paul prayed for open doors.
Pastor Josh
I don't think Paul witnessed every person that he saw, but when the door was open for the gospel, he went right through it.
Pastor Josh
And so what, what we would pray is this.
Pastor Josh
Lord, give me a door of utterance.
Pastor Josh
Give me an open door to give the gospel to somebody.
Pastor Josh
And the more that we look for those opportunities, the more that we pray for those opportunities, the more I Believe they come.
Pastor Josh
That's one prayer that God has always answered for me.
Pastor Josh
And sometimes I'm afraid to pray it because I'm like, I'm really busy today.
Pastor Josh
But I.
Pastor Josh
I would sit there and say, lord, okay, today I really want to have an opportunity to give the gospel to someone.
Pastor Josh
And it would be, like, miraculous thing.
Pastor Josh
Someone would come up and be like, and I wouldn't even know I'm wearing a Middletown Baptist Church hat or shirt.
Pastor Josh
Like, Middletown Baptist Church.
Pastor Josh
I used to go there as a kid.
Pastor Josh
Is Pastor Lasko still there?
Pastor Josh
I'll be like, no, but, you know, I'm, you know, and then sometimes I'm like, awkwardly.
Pastor Josh
I don't want to tell them I'm the pastor.
Pastor Josh
So I'm like, oh, yeah, we're.
Pastor Josh
We're a great church.
Pastor Josh
You can come on by and.
Pastor Josh
But it's like an opportunity right there.
Pastor Josh
Like, and.
Pastor Josh
And it's like, little thing that's an open door.
Pastor Josh
Like, someone asks you about your shirt, someone asks you about, hey, where were you at today?
Pastor Josh
You know, a lot of times when you go out to eat after Sunday morning service and some of us are dressed up or coming out, you know, someone might ask you, hey, where are you coming from?
Pastor Josh
You.
Pastor Josh
Well, coming from church and talk about that.
Pastor Josh
So there's doors of opportunity that can come up anywhere.
Pastor Josh
And so I would encourage you to pray for those.
Pastor Josh
Well, we're going to go ahead and close out now, and then we'll.
Pastor Josh
We'll pray.
Pastor Josh
And then I have a few announcements that you guys can be dismissed.
Pastor Josh
Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.
Pastor Josh
I thank you for this opportunity to study your word.
Pastor Josh
We thank you for the example of Paul and Silas preaching there in Thessalonica.
Pastor Josh
We.
Pastor Josh
We thank you for their sacrifice.
Pastor Josh
We're thankful for even a short amount of investment.
Pastor Josh
Probably they had no idea that their investment would be reaping dividends later on.
Pastor Josh
Lord, we know that the church in Thessalonica preached, sounded the gospel all over the world.
Pastor Josh
And just because you use these men to preach the gospel, and we're thankful for those men and women that were saved there in that city and how so many people came to know you through their witness.
Pastor Josh
And so I pray that we can be that gospel message, that gospel witness in this lost and dying world.
Pastor Josh
I pray that you can strengthen us, encourage our hearts as we go our separate ways.
Pastor Josh
Help us to have a wonderful week, help us to be safe in the weather.
Pastor Josh
And if anyone has to drive, we pray that you keep them safe on the roads.
Pastor Josh
I pray that you help us in 2025 to live the Gospel in every way that we can.
Pastor Josh
We thank you.
Pastor Josh
We love you.
Pastor Josh
In Jesus name I pray.
Pastor Josh
Amen.
Pastor Josh
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast.
Pastor Josh
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing blessing for you.
Pastor Josh
If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
Pastor Josh
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcasts and updates.
Pastor Josh
Thank you so much.
Pastor Josh
God Bless.
Pastor Josh
Have a wonderful day.
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